Growth monitoring and promotion : a descriptive study of primary health care professionals' practices and feeding advice given

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to describe the Primary Health Care (PHC) that professionals practice in terms of growth monitoring, growth promotion and feeding advice given to the mothers. The objectives of the study are as follows: to evaluate the accuracy in which professional nurses complete and interpret growth charts; to assess their use of the growth charts in decision-making; to assess the quality of growth monitoring, promotion and feeding advice, and to identify ways of improving it. A sample of twelve professional nurses from twelve Primary Health Care clinics was randomly selected to participate in health professionals' interviews. These interviews were conducted in a consulting room. In addition, exit interviews with seventy-one mothers were conducted outside consulting rooms. The subjects met the inclusion criterion for this study. The data recorded on the questionnaires was extracted during the professional nurses' interviews and the exit interviews with the mothers. The raw data from the professional nurses' and mothers' interview-responses was captured and a statistician analyzed the quantitative data in percentages. It was found that professional nurse' interpretation of the abnormal growth curves showed a decline compared to the normal growth curve. In terms of their performance on plotting weights for age, ninety-four percent plotted accurately while six percent plotted inaccurately. Forty-two percent of the mothers were not informed about their children's growth pattern and fifty eight percent mothers were not given any feeding advice. The results from this study indicate that since inadequate weight gain was not recognized, children with malnutrition were overlooked. Growth charts were not used in decision-making and this subsequently delayed interventions for malnutrition. Follow-up dates, mothers' information about their child's growth pattern and feeding advice were not adhered to in terms of the monitoring and promotion of growth. It is recommended for improving growth monitoring and promotion practices that primary health care supervisors mentor and coach the professional nurses to increase knowledge and understanding of growth monitoring and growth promotion.